Games Development in the Educational System

[Callum Rowley]

Following on from a recent interview with Edge-online with David Braben focused on the UK educational system for Video Games courses and associated Media (more information can be found here: http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10630#post10630). What are your thoughts on the current state of how teaching the arts of Video Games / Interactive Media is being handled by the government / educational bodies?

Lets hear your thoughts.

 

[caol]

I think Mr. Braben touched on a really important point in the interview. That the problems with the current education system stem from pre-university level. New undergraduates on university courses (particularly more traditional Mathematics and Computing Science courses and the like) have such a poor understanding of the basics that the higher education system has two choices. 1) Take on only those students capable of starting the course OR 2) Dumb down the courses to keep the numbers up. Inevitably, for monetary reasons, the solution has to be number 2.

The addition of games specific courses into this current educational climate have to be dumbed down and stint on things like Mathematically intense elements in order to be financially viable. On top of all of that, getting the games industry to try to accredit these courses seems to just add to the mess.

It seems to me that there are 3 main prohibitive problems at high school level:
1) Poor teaching of the basics of mathematics.
2) Poor understanding of physics (particularly higher level physics) due to a poor understanding of mathematics.
3) Lack of differentiation between ICT and Computing Science (and lack of real Computing Science courses at all at school level - something universities have been complaining of for decades).

 

[EdzUp]

Coming from years ago I do think that things have improved in the maths department but not to the stage of say a country like America where knowledge is important.

I do think that maybe adopting the keep you back a year unless you pass a exam is a good thing.

I also dont like the fact that things seem to have been dumbed down to make it easier to learn.

 

[Callum Rowley]

I also dont like the fact that things seem to have been dumbed down to make it easier to learn.

Agreed. The fact that UK universities are now having to turn away (potentially good) students because they're full shows signs that the barrier for entry into higher education is far too accessible in today's world.

 

[Clooney]

Its an interesting article. Im on my second year of Game Programming now and am finding the maths/physics (as a mature student) pretty tough going. It's not watered down on our course as far as I can see, we're learning parts of A level/degree maths/physics in weeks rather than years. Surely some of the requirements that make a good programmer need to come from the developers? Is there interaction with the industry and the uni's that are offering these courses?

As far as I know my uni, DMU, has only been offering this course for a few years. What I would like to see is game developers liasing with the uni's and offering advice on what should be taught, stopping the problem of irrelivant teaching. Also i'de like to see a yearly talk from a developer such as yourselves (shameless request) to clarify and explain what areas we need to be putting our energies into to stand a chance of getting a job when we graduate.